Forms: 6 a scanche, a scance, ascaunce, 6–7 asconce, ascance, 6–8 askaunce, 7 askauns, ascaunse, 6– askance. [Etymology unknown. Wedgwood suggests It. a schiancio ‘bias, slanting, sloping or slopingly, aslope, across, overthwart’ (Baretti), where schiancio is = OFr. esclanc, esclenc, gauche, left hand. Skeat compares It. scanso f. scansare, expl. by Florio, among other meanings, as ‘to go a slope, or a sconce, or a skew, to go sidelin.’ Koch suggests a formation on ON. á ská: see ASKEW. Diefenbach compares Jutlandish ad-skands, West Fris. skân, schean, which he connects with Du. schuin, schuins: see ASKOYNE.]
(There is a whole group of words of more or less obscure origin in ask-, containing askance, askant, askew, askie, askile, askoye, askoyne, (with which cf. asklent, aslant, asquint,) which are more or less closely connected in sense, and seem to have influenced one another in form. They appear mostly in the 16th or end of the 15th c., and none of them can be certainly traced up to OE.; though they can nearly all be paralleled by words in various languages, evidence is wanting as to their actual origin and their relations to one another.)
1. Sidewise, obliquely, askew, asquint; with a side glance.
1530. Palsgr., 831/1. A scanche, De travers, en lorgnant.
a. 1541. Wyatt, Meane & Sure Est., 52. For, as she lookt a scance, Under a stole she spied two stemyng eyes.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 668. He bid his Angels turne ascance The Poles of Earth.
1768. Beattie, Minstr., I. xxxv. They meet, they dart away, they wheel askance.
1848. Mrs. Jameson, Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850), 154. Judas is at once distinguished, looking askance with a wicked sneer on his face.
b. With a side or indirect meaning.
1876. Swinburne, Erechtheus, 337. Journeying to the bright God’s shrine Who speaks askance and darkling.
2. In the fig. phrases To look, eye, view askance, the idea expressed has varied considerably, different writers using them to indicate disdain, envy, jealousy and suspicion. The last of these is now the prevalent idea, and To look at, eye, view askance = to look at with mistrust.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., March, 21. That scornefully lookes askaunce.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., II. i. 249. Thou canst not frowne, thou canst not looke a sconce.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man. in Hum., IV. ii. Nay, Boy, never look askance at me for the matter.
1602. Life T. Cromwell, IV. ii. Yet look’d askance when as they saw me poor.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 504. The Devil … with jealous leer maligne Ey’d them askance.
1750. Gray, Lett., in Poems (1775), 215. Whom meaner beauties eye askance, And vainly ape her art of killing.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 155. It is envy and malignity … that makes some look askance at the distinctions … set apart for virtue.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 57. Eyeing the enemy askance from under their broad hats.
1875. Gladstone, Glean., VI. xxiv. 120. Both rather abounded in self-confidence, and were viewed askance by authority.
1875. Whitney, Life Lang., v. 97. Words … which come to be looked askance at and avoided.
3. elliptical, quasi-adj. Turned sidewise, sidelong.
1593. Nashe, Christes Teares (1613), 48. Thy sight is no way … impayred, by casting away one askance-regard on any.
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 149. Whom the grand foe, with scornful eye askance, Thus answerd.
1824. Galt, Rothelan, II. IV. viii. 168. The fiend of night, that, even muffled in darkness, retires with an askance and lurid eye from the glorious presence of the morning.
